Anyone willing to test out how long and far a level 1 character could go by himself equipped with the Spectre Snare? (And of course basic armor)

I was thinking of using a Bard and giving him a Bardsword, just so that he could see and heal himself in a dungeon.

As an aside, I wanted to do this myself, but something happened to my party. Items, including the Snare, vanished, and characters had weird items equipped, like diamond plate on my monk and a heal harp on my Paladin, etc.

Hmm.... interesting could be a fun little challenge. Might whip up BT1 dos with a hacked character and try it out.
At what point is the lose/end condition?

May not get that far though, since all it would take is a strong enough first hit to kill the character

I would leave that up to you or anyone else testing.

You could go for the first death, or to rule out a fluke hit, five or ten deaths.
Another variant would be to bring a couple high level mages, largely to protect the subject from traps. Of course, the flaw with that is the mages become targets also for the monsters.

I think the theory is that by the time you're at that point, you've snared up a good creature for the slot and may be able to hold your own. I suppose the subjective strategy would be in selectively choosing which creature to snare to get the farthest, and when/where to replace them. Could be a form of skillful "tricking" for BT ;) Who can do the hardest ridiculous task the best, what is the best way? Just cuz. hehe

Ok. Had some time to kill on vacation so I got all the items needed to get the silver shapes - which is a story to itself - and got the Snare.

Created a bard with 20 hit points, bought entry armor, brought the AC down to -6, and started playing.

Went straight to the wine cellar. Two skeletons and eight hobbits almost got me, but I survived. Went back up to buy a flute, since I forgot that, and realized that healing is one hit point per round. Rather tedious.

Went back in, fought a few battles, and encountered four barbarians, four nomads, and seven kobolds, and did so at only 14 HP. Got it down to three kobolds when they got me. Would have likely survived if I was at full hit points and attacked on every turn.

Will try again later.

Noticed so far that I hit everything, and that the possession spell must be level based because it usually doesn't work. And yes, when it does work the monsters really do target the special.

The Wine Cellar is generally okay. One can handle most everything except for barbarians. Mages can be problematic also.

That appears to be the limit. My two forays into the sewers ended rather quickly. First time came at the hands of a group that had sorcerers. A hit and a spell took me out. Tried again later and found three black widows. One got me each round to finish me off. My guess is that other trips with this character won't go well either.

I tried the catacombs also. A trap nailed the first time. I got withered by a magician and then clubbed by a conjurer.

Still hit everything I attacked.

Might try to roll up another character with better dexterity; see how much an 18 helps vs the current 13 dex I'm using. I may also try a run where I bring two high level mages to tag along and heal after battles, and see how often they got hit also.

Well, for those still interested, it looks like I've reached the conclusion to the experiment.

Tested it with a new character. Hobbit Bard, with 18 Dex, so the AC was -9. He was also a bit luckier, with a LK of 16 (the previous character had a LK of 13)

No problem with the streets and the wine cellar. Went into the Sewers, but unlike the previous character, this one cleaned house. Untouched, with one notable exception. More on that later.

I didn't feel like pulling out a Sewer map to get to deeper levels, so I went to the Catacombs. Figure the Catacombs are tougher, so if he can fare well there, he'd do ok at the bottom of the Sewers.
Anyways, Level 1 of the Catacombs were no problem either. Most notably, went through the set fight against 7 Wights untouched. From an experience standpoint, it appears the toughest fight was against 8 Ninjas. He defeated them without a scratch also.

The biggest problem, predictably, was magic users. In the Sewers or Catacombs, an encounter with them ended poorly if I couldn't reach them quickly.

Unfortunately, I have to stop here. I wanted to find the 66 Skeleton fight, but checking a map, there is a problem: There's a trap that I can't get around. So I'm pretty much stuck there.

I did try The Castle. The Golem is a 50/50 fight. The Grey Dragon clobbered me each time, so it looks like that's off limits.

So there you go. Under certain conditions - I wouldn't consider that character ideal in a normal game - you can actually get pretty far with some basic equipment and a Spectre Snare.

Thinking about it, I suppose I can test it out in BT2. My guess is the Tombs would be the limit, and that's probably generous.

My character's AC improved to L0. His Heal Harp didn't survive the transfer, so I had to but a new one. For some reason, a Fin's Flute was cheaper than a generic mandolin; that further decreased the AC to L2.

I first actually went to the Tombs, stumbled into the Grey Crypt, and went to Fanskar's Castle. More on those later.

I was pretty much untouched in the cities and Wilderness. Hit everything also, plus the Spell Bind ability seems to work in this one.
Got pretty far in the Dark Domain. Levels 1 and 2 were a breeze; hit everything and nothing touched me. Even survived a trap with minimal damage.
Wanted to take on the Dark One, so I had to go get the Winged Creature, someone skewing my experiment. (I was also worried about him dying, but with an AC of -6 and 67 hit points, he appeared to be rather durable).
Anyways, got the creature, and actually encountered no fights on level 3.
Ran into some Fire Guards on Level 4 and was immediately burned to a crisp. So close......

As for the more advanced dungeons I check out first, physical encounters in the Tombs were pretty easy. Of course, mages were a bigger problem. I could last a while against them, but at some point I usually failed a save and would be taken out. Summoners could shield themselves much more easily in BT2, posing it's own set of problems.
The other problem was the dungeon itself, as you can't get very far without running into a room full of spinners. I didn't bother with a nospin ring, and I wasn't going to try to spin my way out of that area, so I stopped there.

On the way for Fanskar's, I stumbled in the Grey Crypt. I decided to actually try it. I mean, spellcasters are my biggest bane, and magic doesn't work there, so maybe I have a little chance right? Nope....got my face clawed off by a Werewolf in the first battle.

Found the roomier Fanskar's Castle. Two trips in, two battles were someone cast a spell on me and quickly finished me off.

So, in summary, looks like one can last through Level 3 of the Dark Domain. If you can cherry pick the fights, looks like somewhere in the Tombs or Fanskar's is one's limit.